who gets the job of pushing the knob...?

All of the progress for the last three days has been 'behind the scenes'...I've always been bothered by the fact that I don't have an inventory of my parts or really know where they are beyond 'somewhere on the property'.  Being that I worked in inventory control for so long, you'd think I'd translate those skills to my own stuff - but like the car mechanic that drives a total shitbox, it hadn't been a priority to improve the situation.  The situation where I attempted the brake installation and have had to order just about everything in spite of my rather extensive collection of parts...got me to fundamentally realize that it was time that I take an inventory, create locations and get this stuff organized.

For the past week or so I've been cataloging all of my parts, their condition and cost along with a location (to put like items together for starters...).  I'm well over 600 lines at this point and I'm about 1/2 way through the parts.  There's a decent amount of stuff that I won't get to for quite a while, if ever.  I'm learning a bit along the way - having to look a lot of it up in the parts book - and discovering parts that I don't need (too early or late for my car) and parts that I have purchased a few too many times.  My upcoming engine build has already influenced how many early parts I decide to keep - I'm already letting go of early parts I won't use.

The goals for this project are akin to the layers of an onion.  

Layer 1: Identify what I've got and where it's stored.  This is proving to be the thickest and toughest layer to penetrate.  In the process I'm also creating labels and bagging/tagging parts so it's taking longer than it might if I wasn't being so anal.  I've also spent hours rearranging the garage to consolidate the storage areas for parts.

Layer 2: Group items together by location on the car - not necessarily by part group - so that when I go to put the car back together, I'll have the parts for a given area, like the doors, together.  I also think this will allow me to more readily identify parts that are missing or in excess.

Layer 3: Sell excess or non-applicable parts (this will happen parallel to Layer 1's evolution)

Layer 4: Identify and seek out the 'missing' parts (if there are any at this point).  I know of a handful of parts that I would like to find but that's about it.  I'm already skipping opportunities to buy/squirrel away parts that I've already got.  Hard to do - although I need to get some control over what is slowly growing too large.

I may get back into the brakes tomorrow - I need a break from all of the computer work for a bit.  Maybe I can get the brakes done, start the alignment and at least get the car washed...I would love to take it out for a drive soon.